Navy identifies 4 killed in plane crash in Georgia

PENSACOLA, Fla. 
A Marine combat veteran with three young children, a Virginia Tech aerospace engineering graduate, a retired Navy lieutenant commander and a young Marine died when their Pensacola-based Navy jet crashed this week in north Georgia woods, the military said Wednesday.

Military investigators remained north of Atlanta on Wednesday where the T-39N Sabreliner went down, killing all four aboard in dense forest near Georgia's boundaries with North Carolina and Tennessee. No one on the ground was hurt in Monday's crash though authorities say the plane barely missed a house.

The crash happened during a training mission and the bodies of all four crew members have been recovered, said Navy Lt. Brett Dawson, a spokesman for the Navy's Air Training Command headquarters in Corpus Christi, Texas. He released the identities and said a 25-acre brush fire started by fuel had slowed investigators.

"As I understand it, the fires from the crash had been too hot and they are just now able to approach the wreckage and begin the investigation," Dawson told The Associated Press.

Burton Paynter of Moorhead, Minn., said his son joined the Marines at 18 and served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The father of three graduated from college and went through flight training while in the Marines.

"He was living his dream. He wanted to fly since he was a young man," the father said. "I've always prepared myself for this day. Every time he left here and went to Iraq I wondered if he would come back."

Eckhart, a Naval flight officer, graduated from Virginia Tech in 2008 with a degree in aerospace engineering. He was a member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets.

Ret. Air Force Col. Rock Roszak, alumni director for the corps, said Wednesday that the organization was in mourning.

"Many of the cadets knew him and they all feel a bond," he said.

Pensacola Naval Air Station said it would hold a closed-memorial for the men at the base chapel Friday.

Dawson said the wreckage would eventually be hauled back to Pensacola Naval Air Station for further investigation.

In January 2006, a Navy T-39 Sabreliner also based at Pensacola crashed in northwest Georgia woods, killing all four aviators after takeoff from Chattanooga, Tenn. The pilot in the 2006 crash was a 68-year-old retired Navy commander under contract with the Navy for training.

Dawson said Monday that McDaniel also was a contract pilot. The Navy has not said if he was piloting the T-39N when it went down.